The present invention relates to an improved high production nutcracking apparatus, and more particularly, to a nutcracking apparatus of the type disclosed for example in U.S. Pat. No. 5,623,867 and application Ser. No. 09/638,423 filed Aug. 14, 2000, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,205,915 and which has an improved capability of aligning its components.
The nutcracking apparatus as disclosed in the above patent and application includes a rotatable turret which mounts a plurality of cracking units arranged about its periphery, with each cracking unit having an opening adapted to receive an individual nut from a nut feed conveyor which comprises a plurality of nut transport elements mounted in succession on a feed chain. Each of the nut transport elements includes an upwardly open transverse receptacle for holding an individual nut, and each cracking unit on the turret has an anvil which is moved axially into the receptacle at a pickup point so that the nut is engaged between the anvil and a crack die on the other side of the opening.
In operation, the feed conveyor moves tangentally past the rotating turret so that the anvils of the cracking units enter the receptacles of respective nut transport elements at the pickup point and engage and pick up the nut. After the cracking unit and engaged nut have moved away from the pickup point, the crack die of the cracking unit applies an impact to the nut to crack the shell.
To insure proper engagement of the nut, and to avoid damage to the components of the machine, it is important that the cracking units be properly aligned and timed with respect to the receptacles of the nut transport elements. Heretofore, the alignment and timing operation was carried out by manually releasing the drive of the turret so that it could be rotated without causing the feed conveyor to advance, and the turret was then rotated until the operator believed the anvil of a cracking unit was in its bottom dead center position and centered in a receptacle. This procedure was unsatisfactory however, since the covers and other components of the apparatus rendered it very difficult if not impossible to see the anvil of the lowermost cracking unit when it is located in the receptacle. Thus, proper alignment was not assured.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a high production nutcracking apparatus of the described type and which has provision for a simple and reliable alignment of the cracking units with respect to the receptacles of the nut transport elements.